Recently in social network Category

This has been a busy networking week. Business Buddies holiday party, AMA Tampa Bay Luncheon, and the Tampa Bay CEO Awards dinner last night. The emcee for the event, Brent Britton, is an interesting guy, a lawyer from MIT in Tampa via Silcon Valley. Another person of interest was a finalist for a CEO Award. She worked on Obama's campaign doing online marketing. She writes for Huffington Post. You just never know who you will run into.

The problem I have with it is how so many intriguing people can live in Tampa Bay - and no one knows it!  So a couple of us are on a mission to cross-pollinate the creatives in town with the techie/geeks in the Tampa Bay area. Find all the hidden gems in Tampa Bay. It started with BarCampTampaBay in October and will continue with Lunch 2.0, maybe Jelly, Dev/Design, some other stuff and culminate at BarCampTampaBay in Sept./Oct.

During a discussion online, some interesting items popped up.

Companies ban Instant Message. One IT Security Consultant looks at the irony of it here. Tele-Presence is all about improved efficiency in communicating -- no more phone tag, less voicemail, that kind of thing -- but how will that be implemented in a corporate environment that locks it down?

Social networking like LinkedIn and Twitter are becoming commonplace among the marketing set. Maybe instead of banning these things in a corporate environment, you embrace it and set policy. Here's an article from CIO.com on LinkedIn etiquette.

It boils down to tools. Will you give people the tools that they can use to be effective at their position?  If you are that worried about security, do an audit and train your people. Manage by walking around. Most theft is internal or social engineered. You can train against the social engineering, but if someone wants something bad enough they will figure out how to get it. It's just a shame that can't get that passionate and creative about the job.

On Wed. night, I am moderating a discussion at the American Marketing Association - Tampa Bay Chapter (New Media SIG) on the Deep Dive into Blogging. 

In a Biz Journal article, the author notes, "It is a new world for business. Embrace the opportunities. Open your mind to a new way of connecting. It is a great way to prosper in any economy."

I say that in today's business world, you have to be connecting with your customers and prospects - even your employees, vendors, and prospective employees. Reward programs are old school. Social media - in the form of blogging, Facebook groups, YouTube channels, Twitter, etc. - is the way to really form a bond with your customers.

For years, we heard about WOM (word of mouth). We read books about turning Customers into Evangelists and BuzzAgents and Sneezers. But how do you do that? According to Seth Godin's latest book, you build a Tribe. You lead people. One way is to be a Thought Leader in your industry. Blogging helps.

If you have an authentic dialogue on your blog whereby you give value to your readers, you will eventually build a tribe. (It may not be a big tribe, but a tribe of followers nonetheless).

Here is a sneak peek at my presentation:

 

In grass roots fashion, Pandora, the online music genome project, urged its users (like me) to contact Congress about extending the royalty deadline. The bill passed the House. "Pandora and other Web-based radio services have been negotiating with music-industry groups for more than a year now, hoping to agree on a workable royalty structure before the existing structure bankrupted webcasters." [Dallas Morning News]  Who was the biggest opponent of the bill? NAB. Go figure!

I don't know how many of you are on LinkedIn or Facebook but it has been a strange couple of weeks. Before I left for IT Expo West, I was getting duplicate invites from several people that I did not know. The unusual part was the duplicates. So I replied to each invite asking for information about what list my email address was on. No reply from the 7 or so folks. Flying back from LA, it's a week later, still no reply. Why invite me to your network, if you don't use it or check it?

Also, LinkedIn has started allowing anyone to create a group. And they have. 494 groups when you search telecom. Ridiculous. That's like buying a new screwdriver and hammer at Sears each time you assemble Saunders furniture. Use the tools that are there and stop creating excess noise.

It would be great if one invite would say something like: "Peter, I joined GotchaNetworks. The discussion about LTE was great and I have discovered one or two prospects." Then I can understand the invite. But the canned invite because every time someone joins a group or network they upload the whole contact list is patently absurd.  And another lazy thing is the newsletter. You join networks and people add you to their newsletter. It would be fine if there was any value to these "communications" but they come off as marketing fluff. Tell me what you are up to. What topic are you following or finding interest in (or scaring you - no politics or religion please). How about what you get from the network we are both in?

While this is some ranting, the lesson is about Marketing and Persuasion. If you want people to read your stuff, to not think that you are just interrupting them like an email tele-marketer, Respect their time. How to do that? Give value. Think about the message you are sending.

Speaking with a buddy this morning about MySpace and Facebook where people add so many personal things. The HR Director at his company Googles each applicant and checks their social networking profiles. Drunk or other improper photos relegate your resume to the shredder.  Here's 12 Photo blunders that have gotten folks in trouble.  I'm sure there are many more.  Peter Shankman, author and PR guy, likes openness in people's profiles. But is there a line? Would you hire someone who's profile contained 450 bikini photos? (I probably would if I was hiring sales folks How about lovie-dovie photos? Or other types that are not family portrait type content?

I don't get the whole Twitter thing. Maybe its the folks I am connected to. Most just puke all day. By puke, I mean they just spray out stuff that is usually inconsequential. And most of the time when you reply to someone on twitter, nothing happens. (Again ot could just be my flock of followers). The most use I get from twitter is weather updates from 2 sources (especially living in Florida on the Gulf Coast).  One thing that I may try is Tweetburner to see who actually reads my twits. Instead of tinyurl, you use tweetburner to create a shortened link and tweetburner tracks the click-throughs.

At TechCrunch50, Yammer was demo-ed. Yammer is Twitter for the Enterprise, I guess like Jabber is for IM.

If you are like me, maybe you need 100 Twittin' Secrets. If you have no idea what this post was about, either head over to Slideshare.net and search for twitter or email me for Brenda Young's excellent PowerPoint on Twitter for Beginners that she has been presenting at workshops for AMA - Tampa Bay's New Media SIG.

UPDATE: Christine has a little more on Yammer from TC50.

I dabble in Twitter. I find it very challenging to plow through my various inboxes, blogs, clients, LinkedIn, and to find time to Twit as well. It's just too much noise. (So is doing anything by Committee. By Committee through email is the Worst Way to Do Anything!)

Lately, people (like Pistachio) have been putting on information on how to use Twitter for business. I think in an Enterprise it works or with distributed groups it works, but in small business it's just a way to feel connected - which i swhat communications is all about any way.

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing had this in his latest newsletter: "I put together my "Beginner's Guide to Using Twitter for Business" and offer here to all as a gift. This is not the definitive guide to all things twitter, this is a nice, simple, practical road map to show you how to start using twitter to reach some of your business and marketing objectives." That's one source.

Then there is this presentation, "Explaining the Impact of Twitter, Friendfeed and Social Media 2.0", which does a good job of explaining how the conversations have flowed, but whether it is blogging, commenting, email, etc. it is especially bulletin board like messaging. People (like this presenter), suggest that Twitter is Interacting much like text messaging. I beg to differ. Texting is a quick way to converse with one person, who will likely reply in some form - text, call, email. Twitter is mainly one-way. It's not a conversation - or at least I'm not experiencing it.

In a collaboration effort it could replace IM, especial for folks without IM. And the history portion is good for this. But how much proprietary info do you want to put on Twitter?

So how are you using Twitter? Following or being Followed? (you can follow me at twitter.com/radinfo )

I know that a new "social network" pops up every day. LinkedIn adds a new group every day. Facebook adds groups every day. But has anyone tried this? Zrc2.com - a 'One stop shop' for iT & telecoms professionals.

Duct Tape Marketing has a post about the business use for Twitter. I can see why Twitter would work for a conference like it did for SXSW: great way to update attendees; remind people about keynotes and sessions starting; let people comment about what was cool and where they are going (dinner anyone?); etc. (Read article about it here). And that is a good use for Twitter, but what other business uses are there? In my stream of people I follow on Twitter, there aren't any conversations and a lot of it is self-promotion stuff (look at me, read my stuff, hey, hey!). I guess the best use it to just see what people think. To do that you can use the search function. You can follow me on Twitter.